Starbucks Coffee is getting creamed by New York City rents. The java giant may get priced out of its premier and larger Manhattan locations as some of the company’s earliest stores approach renewal after 15 to 20 years. “It’s likely that it’ll be very difficult to renew a number of those leases,” said retail broker Joanne Podell, a vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield, who does not represent Starbucks. She noted that the stores with “superb” locations—i.e., on busy streets with well-trafficked storefronts—are expiring and the chain was paying “much, much less per square foot” than today’s rents. The average...

Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, wants his employees to talk to the customers about race relations in America, which makes as much sense, I suppose, as a bank instructing its tellers to inquire after your faith. In other words, Schultz and his people have gotten so full of themselves that they actually believe a barista can engage a customer in a meaningful conversation about race, even though the customer might want only a latte and not chatter. Or else they believe that coffee, by virtue of its stimulants, is an elixir that can close the great divide, if there...

"It's also interesting because I'm actually black, but you assumed otherwise," Jay Smooth told Nancy Giles. Starbucks' campaign to get people talking about race has already birthed a very public, very cringeworthy conversation about race. Jay Smooth, a radio DJ and video blogger, was on MSNBC's All In With Chris Hayes Tuesday night, discussing the coffee company's "Race Together" campaign with fellow guest Nancy Giles, a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning. As they discussed the efficacy of a campaign like Race Together — with Giles defending it and Smooth pushing back — Hayes played one of Smooth's most popular videos,...

The man who invented the K-Cup coffee pod almost 20 years ago says he regrets doing so, and he can't understand the popularity of the products that critics decry as an environmental catastrophe. John Sylvan worked at Keurig in the 1990s when he devised a simple product that could create a small mug of coffee out of a plastic pod. Originally aiming it at office workers, Sylvan said he thought the product might have some limited appeal to people who would normally go Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts or other coffee chains in the morning, because now they could get a cup...

RUSH: This is ABC News out of Chicago. "Do you brew your coffee using those Keurig K-Cups? The man who invented it is ashamed of his achievement. John Sylvan told The Atlantic that he sometimes regrets his invention because it creates too much waste and is bad for the environment. 'I feel bad sometimes that I ever (invented the K-Cup),' Sylvan said. 'I don't have one. They're kind of expensive to use. Plus it's not like drip coffee is tough to make.' "How expensive? A 12 pack of Folgers K-Cups, for example, sells for about $6.72, giving you about 4...

Drinking three to five cups of coffee a day reduces the risk of clogged arteries that can lead to heart attacks, a Korean study suggests. Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in Seoul led the study of 25,138 South Korean men and women. The participants, who were 41 years old on average and free of heart disease, were categorized based on how much coffee they drank and underwent a health screening. The results were compared to non-coffee drinkers. The study found participants who drank between three and five cups of java a day had the lowest levels of calcium buildup in their coronary...

Stop chugging sugary soda and munching sweet treats. Cut back on red meats, butter and other sources of saturated fat. Lay off the salt shaker. Eat plenty of fruits and veggies. And don't worry about having an egg and an extra cup of coffee with your breakfast. These are the conclusions of the advisory panel that helps shape America's official dietary guidelines, and they appear to be about the same as they were back in 2010, the last time the guidelines were updated, dietitians say. "What's good about the report is that much of it is reinforcing what we saw...

When the nation's top nutrition panel released its latest dietary recommendations on Thursday, the group did something it had never done before: weigh in on whether people should be drinking coffee. What it had to say is pretty surprising.Not only can people stop worrying about whether drinking coffee is bad for them, according to the panel, they might even want to consider drinking a bit more.The panel cited minimal health risks associated with drinking between three and five cups per day. It also said that consuming as many as five cups of coffee each day (400 mg) is tied to...

In late 18th century New York, with a revolt against tea in place and plain water mostly undrinkable, coffeeâ€™s popularity surged.And the cityâ€™s love affair with coffee beans began.Coffee houses soon sprang up. Unlike the cafes of today, these were more like taverns, where the cityâ€™s political and merchant elite met to exchange ideas and do business while nursing a cup of joe (and probably stronger drinks as well).One coffee house on the bustling corner of Wall and Water Streets, the Tontine (the second building on the left, above), bore witness to some of the events and the development of...

President Yoweri Museveni said in a statement that Uganda must become financially independent of donor nations that provide about half its budget but which he said are partly to blame for many if its problems. Museveni has often hit out at donors for giving "unsolicited" advice, and says that by exporting their bountiful raw materials for processing in the West, African nations are the real donors. "The raw materials that we have been donating to the Western countries must be turned into final products," he said in the statement, saying there were international markets for Ugandan coffee, cotton, cereals, beef,...

Brasília (AFP) - Brazilian scientists have discovered a protein in coffee that has effects similar to pain reliever morphine, researchers at the state University of Brasilia (UnB) and state-owned Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation Embrapa said Saturday. Embrapa said its genetics and biotech division, teaming up with UnB scientists, had discovered "previously unknown protein fragments" with morphine-like effects in that they possess "analgesic and mildly tranquilizing" qualities. The company added tests on laboratory mice showed that the opioid peptides, which are naturally occurring biological molecules, appeared to have a longer-lasting effect on the mice than morphine itself....

Scientists have discovered a link between regular daily intake of the hot drink and a reduction of up to 20 per cent of the chances of developing dementia. The report released today (thurs) from the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee highlights the role nutrition can play in preserving cognitive function, especially during the preclinical phase of Alzheimer's before full-blown symptoms of dementia occur.

Formerly the "Fans of Quinn and Rose Discussion" thread, our group been meeting here for six years. We still hold out hope that our favorite talk show hosts will come back on the air but, whether they do or not, our friendly group will still meet to start the day. So if you are preparing to go to work, are getting home from work - or happily retired - stop in and say mornin' and share the latest news, discuss the weather, share a recipe, or whatever!

More and more companies are going “gay” while at the same time denigrating anybody who has an issue with same-sex, alternate sex, slice and dice sex (transgenderism), and take-your-pick sex. When it was found out that Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich opposed same-sex marriage, so much pressure was put on him because of his anti-same sex marriage views (he donated to Proposition 8) that he believed that he couldn’t do anything but resign. The Gaystapo would have made it unbearable for him and the company for Eich if he had remain as CEO. There is a long trail of persecution from...

OKEMOS, Mich. - A Michigan woman who wanted home-brewed Starbucks coffee will accept $250 to end a lawsuit over the company's decision to stop making discs for a specific single-serve coffee machine -- the one that she happened to own. Pam Montgomery of Okemos said she bought a Tassimo brewer by Kraft Foods because Starbucks supplied coffee discs for it. But Starbucks ended its deal with Kraft and came up with its own machine. It also makes discs/pods for Keurig machines.

It was the salute seen around the world. President Obama was caught on video saluting Marines with a coffee cup in his hand. Just call him Cappuccino-in-Chief. The White House posted video to its Instagram account and soon unleashed a torrent of outrage. The Washington Times dubbed the moment “Semper Latte.” I’m surprised he didn’t order the Marines to fetch him cream and sugar. Before lunchtime – liberals had unearthed a photograph purportedly showing former President Bush saluting with a dog in his arms.

So, you couldn’t sleep last night. You’d like nothing more than to go back to bed, but you’ve got a long day of work staring you in the face. How do you power through? Science of Us talked to sleep researchers to figure out how to get through a day after you’ve had a sleepless night. Each of them wanted to be incredibly clear, up front, about this: You really, really need seven to eight hours of sleep to function like a proper human being (unless you’re one of those short sleepers — but look, you aren’t). Still, they acknowledged,...

There may be something extra lurking in your morning cup of joe, and it’s not fairy dust. A new report reveals that due to recent coffee shortages, producers may be turning to finely ground fillers such as wood, husks, whole coffee berries, and even clumps of earth to compensate for the lost beans. Once roasted and ground, these fillers resemble coffee, which makes it difficult to visually confirm a coffee blend’s contents. Even more troubling, ”normal people can’t taste [the difference],” research team leader Suzana Lucy Nixdorf told us via email. Other common filler ingredients (detailed in the graphic below)...

I have seen the future of iced coffee. There I was, wandering the grocery-store aisles—when suddenly, next to the kombucha, opposite the rotisserie chickens, I spotted something I never thought I’d live to see. A blue and white carton—like the half-pints of milk that come on elementary school lunch trays—emblazoned with the words Blue Bottle New Orleans Iced Coffee. This coffee is legendary in the Bay Area, and now that Blue Bottle has expanded to New York, I’m sure its name echoes on the streets of Manhattan and Williamsburg, too. Brewed with chicory, cut with whole milk, sweetened with cane...

Sameera planned carefully for her attempt at breaking a world record. She obtained permission from the store where her attempt would take place, and even made sure to alert media outlets ahead of time. She even brought the proper equipment and a support team. What record was she out to break? She sought to make the most expensive single free Starbucks drink of all time. The initial cash register total was more than $60, but scanning her loyalty card brought the total down to $57.75. You know, only $57.75. The previous record, as you may have learned from Consumerist or...

It was the greatest coffee run in American history. The Ohio boys had been fighting since morning, trapped in the raging battle of Antietam, in September 1862. Suddenly, a 19-year-old William McKinley appeared, under heavy fire, hauling vats of hot coffee. The men held out tin cups, gulped the brew and started firing again. “It was like putting a new regiment in the fight,” their officer recalled. Three decades later, McKinley ran for president in part on this singular act of caffeinated heroism. At the time, no one found McKinley’s act all that strange. For Union soldiers, and the lucky...

If you're going to drink wine in a can, you should probably make it coffee-flavored, and fantastically enough, this stuff comes in two low-cal, slim-can "flavors," if you will: Cabernet Coffee Espresso and Chardonnay Coffee Cappuccino. Being the first to market with a coffee wine is a not-inconsiderable bump in mirth from the people at Friends Fun Wine, "creators of the 'fun wine' category," albeit one that was previously limited to hum-drum canned sangria and even less fun 6 percent ABV strawberry moscato. Still, it all feels a bit uninspired, so long as Aussies keep throwing back Nerds-Nutella coffee bombs,...

Waste coffee grinds could be turned into a sustainable fuel to power vehicles, scientists have found. Oil can be extracted from coffee grounds by soaking them in an organic solvent, before being chemically transformed into biodiesel via a process called 'transesterification', according to researchers from the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies at University of Bath. As part of the study, the researchers made biofuel from ground coffee produced in 20 different geographic regions, including caffeinated and decaffeinated forms, as well as Robusta and Arabica varieties. "Around 8 million tonnes of coffee are produced globally each year and ground waste coffee...

DANIELLE WIENER-BRONNER, The WireJun. 20, 2014 ï‚‚Months after we all started fretting over the prospect of a global coffee shortage, it seems we might actually start to feel the caffeine-related effects of Brazil's massive drought and Central America's coffee fungus, in the form industry-wide retail price increases. The Washington Post reported back in February that coffee costs were expected to rise later in the year: For now, retail prices for coffee are stable. Roasters typically have enough supplies to cover themselves for a few months. But if the price of the Arabica (pronounced uh-RAB-ick-uh) beans continues to rise, consumers could...

People have taken to putting butter in their coffee. The practice is polarizing—it sounds awesome to some, disgusting to others—but really, it’s not about how the mixture tastes. “Clarified butter is a great source of energy, satiates you: I get the draw,” coffee writer Oliver Strand told us on Twitter. “But it’s more about diet than flavor.” Let’s discuss. Where It Comes From: Putting butter in morning tea has long been a “thing” in Tibet. “The heart and soul of Tibet” is butter tea, chef Vikas Khanna told us. (Khanna’s cookbook, Return to the Rivers: Recipes and Memories of the...

A UC Berkeley graduate who was severely burned after spilling hot coffee on her lap filed a lawsuit Thursday against In-N-Out Burger claiming employees in Oakland refused to call an ambulance. Hedy Chen claims employees at the drive-through restaurant ignored her screams and repeated requests to call 911. Instead, she was given a pack of ice, which can exacerbate scarring, according to the suit filed in Alameda County Superior Court. "What they were supposed to do was call 911 because the operators know that" ice is bad, said Kirk Boyd, her lawyer. "They said there is a policy of not...

In North America, Keurig is king. The rest of the world is Nescafé territory. Keurig Green Mountain, the company behind the popular single-cup coffee machines and pods, is having a pretty excellent year... In the rest of the world, Nestle’s Nescafé instant coffee leads the market, even though many of those regions drink more fresh coffee than instant. Nescafé is just so dominant in the instant category that its sales are higher than other individual brands...

The European Union is poised to scrap compulsory “best before” labels on coffee, rice, dry pasta, hard cheeses, jams and pickles to help reduce the estimated 100 million tons of food wasted across Europe each year. Officials of the European Commission will table proposals next month allowing national governments to extend the list of foods that do not require best-before dates, in a move which they believe will mean 15 million tons less food a year is discarded by households wrongly worried that it is no longer fit for consumption. […] EU legislation on labeling currently requires all food to...

A fungus called coffee rusts is currently causing damages of more than $1 billion across Latin American region coffee farms, and it is affecting the prices of coffee in the United States. ...But Raj Shah, head of the USAID, said their main concern is not only on the rising price of coffee but more on the economic security of small farms abroad. He said that if farmers lose their jobs, it escalates poverty and hunger and poverty region and this will add to the problem of violence and drug trafficking.

A coffee a day could help keep eye diseases at bay. That’s according to a joint study out of South Korea and the United States, which concluded that powerful antioxidants found in coffee can play a role in preventing age-related eye diseases and the degeneration of eyesight. For their research, scientists looked at the impact of chlorogenic acid or CLA, a strong antioxidant that has been shown to prevent retinal degeneration in mice. To conduct their experiment, mice were treated with nitric oxide, which creates oxidative stress and free radicals and leads to retinal degeneration. Those that were pretreated with...

Your coffee maker can now brew your entire breakfast before you head out the door in the morning. Golden Valley-based General Mills has launched Nature Valley-brand oatmeal that’s made in a Keurig brewer – a machine that makes single servings of coffee, tea and other beverages using a single-serve capsule or pod (also known as a K-Cup), the Washington Post says. Here’s how it works: Hot water from the Keurig runs through flavor pods (K-Cups) and into a mug filled with Nature Valley Bistro Cups oatmeal, to be mixed with an additional packet of nuts and fruit. This is General...

A small sign of renewed American freedom has been noticed in Spokane, Washington. Jitterz Java was robbed twice in February of this year. On March 16th, an armed robber was run off by an armed employee. As noted in the above image, at least one barista believes in the deterrent effect of open carry. The owner, Sara Chapel has taken steps to reduce her losses. From spokesman.com: The recent string of violence has owner Sara Chapel fed up. “The way I’ve been scheduling the girls is that at least one girl who carries a gun is always on shift,”...

San Francisco is not the city that knows how to tip, according to a survey. A poll of coffee purchases made by Square reveals that only 34.2 percent of San Francisco purchases were accompanied by a tip, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. That was the eighth-lowest out of nine cities surveyed. In Tampa, 62 percent of coffee drinkers tipped on a Square purchase, according to the survey. Even New Yorkers did better, with about 41 percent of coffee drinks topped off with a tip. Only Chicago was worse -- there, baristas get extra cash 12.3 percent of the time,...

A would-be thief got a warm surprise after attempting to break into a couple's flat in northern Sweden. The couple were asleep in their home when they awoke with a start around 1am upon hearing a noise coming from the balcony of their apartment in Kvarnåsen. Homeowner Tomas Holmberg rushed to the balcony, flung open the door from the inside and managed to overpower the hapless thief – who didn't resist – and promptly called the police, according to local media reports. Holmberg then sat the 21-year-old burglar down in the kitchen and offered him some coffee. "He looked forlorn...

MUMBAI: It is a rite of passage for many young journalists and filmmakers in Mumbai. You enter the Irani cafe, take in the atmosphere of peeling walls, old calendars and dusty cabinets, the bentwood chairs and glass-topped tables, the screened-off sections that no one seems to have entered in years and the few people sipping tea or bun-maska. Then you pluck up courage, approach the aging owner at the counter and ask if you can speak to him for a story on vanishing Irani cafes. It is some measure of the kindness usually lurking under the owners' gruff exteriors that,...

Coffee has long been a friend of students working through the night, but it does more than just keep us awake. A study provides the first convincing evidence that caffeine enhances long-term memory in people – provided the dose is right. The effects mirror similar results seen in honeybees, where a boost to memory from caffeine-laden nectar may help bees return to certain plants. Researchers strongly suspected that caffeine enhances memory, but studies that tried to show this in people weren't conclusive, as any apparent benefits in memory could have been due to increased attention, a known benefit of caffeine....

Researchers in Baltimore, Maryland, carried out tests on 100 people Showed them a series of images which they had to remember Then gave some participants 200mg of caffeine - the same as a strong cup Those who took dose could remember pictures more clearly the next day Coffee doesn’t just perk you up – just one mug a day can give your memory a boost too, experts claimed yesterday. ‘We have always known caffeine has cognitive enhancing effects, but its particular effects on strengthening memories and making them resistant to forgetting has never been examined in detail in humans. We...

KANAB, UT – The Utah Department of Transportation is urging motorists to plan ahead for daily three-hour closures of U.S. Highway 89 immediately north of Kanab beginning Wednesday. UDOT will completely close three miles of the highway in both directions, from Kanab north to the Kanab Creek Bridge, Mondays through Fridays from 8:30-11:30 a.m. until approximately April 11.The highway will be open to single lane traffic for the remaining 21 hours each day and also open on weekends. Depending on a driver’s origin and destination, suitable detours could take as much time as waiting; so the Kane County Office of...

Oh, I resisted for a very long time. I can’t claim to be a coffee traditionalist, really, thanks to my preference for flavored coffee. My father likes to scoff at me for that whenever he visits out here, but I like the real thing as well. I drink it straight, no cream or sweetener whether flavored or not, and I brew it in large pots, totally full, every single time. And most days I drink all of it, too. All of that changed when my sister bought us a Keurig system for Christmas this week while visiting out here. Specifically,...

A quaint tourist town in Washington State has become divided over a coffee stand run by scantily clad bikini-wearing baristas. At the center of the dispute is Meghan Calavan, owner of the Sips Ahoy coffee stand, and a female resident of Anacortes who accused Calavan of making offensive comments about her weight. The argument between the two women has caught the attention of local authorities, has compelled members of the community to engage in fist fights and has threatened the survival of the popular sailor-themed bikini barista stand. The feud first began on Facebook when Jesseka Kathleen Cladek posted on...

Coffee is actually very healthy. It is loaded with antioxidants and beneficial nutrients that can improve your health.The studies show that coffee drinkers have a much lower risk of several serious diseases. Here are the top 13 evidence-based health benefits of coffee, that have been confirmed in actual human studies.1. Coffee Can Improve Energy Levels and Make You Smarter Coffee can help people feel less tired and increase energy levels (1, 2). This is because it contains a stimulant called caffeine, which is actually the most commonly consumed psychoactive substance in the world (3).After you drink coffee, the caffeine is...

The next time you take a coffee break, you might want to consider a triple espresso. The extra caffeine will help get your blood flowing—and possibly reduce your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. A study presented Wednesday at the American Heart Assn.’s Scientific Sessions meeting offers new evidence that coffee boosts the function of small blood vessels in people who are already healthy. …

Starbucks Corp has failed to persuade a federal appeals court to stop a small, family-owned New Hampshire roaster from selling coffee known as "Charbucks." Ruling in a case that began in 2001, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Black Bear Micro Roastery and its owner, Wolfe's Borough Coffee Inc., may keep selling "Charbucks Blend," "Mister Charbucks" and "Mr. Charbucks" coffee.